Colorado Trout Fishing Shangri-LA

There are few places prettier than Colorado in the fall. You must see golden aspens to appreciate their vibrancy. However, we came for the fishing, the scenery was pure gravy.

The moon rising over the redstone cliffs in Redstone, CO

On this trip we fished the Crystal, Roaring Fork and Frying Pan rivers – the Triumvirate! The Frying Pan is a Colorado gold medal stream, thousands of trout per square mile. Rising fish were everywhere, too many to count –it was a true hatch matching challenge. Once solved, we fished midges until dark and had a tremendous day. With 18 miles of this stream to choose from, the fishing experience can vary widely from chasing the wizened hogs just below the dam to throwing drys and catching 5-10 fish per hour.

The Roaring Fork receives the Frying Pan’s waters above the town of Basalt. It is an awesome river valley. This time of year it is an easily wadeable river full of big trout. We caught rainbow’s and brown’s most of them in the 15 – 22” class. The rainbows must have had steelhead genes as several took us into our backing when they weren’t in the air! Our final evening on the Roaring Fork, saw an awesome Caddis Hatch. More than 40 miles of the Roaring Fork are fishable, once again presenting us with a highly varied habitat and fishing conditions. The “Fork” is one of the great western fisheries, a must see and must fish.

The Crystal became our “home waters” on this trip. Being able to walk out the front door and stroll into the stream is just irresistible. Consistent hatches, great nymphing and plenty of hungry trout would be enough to please anyone but in addition this pretty stream gets very little fishing pressure, on Wednesday, we did not see another fisherman in 6 hours of water time. The fish are not as large as what you will find on the Roaring Fork, or as many fish as the Frying Pan, but what you will find on the other end of the line varies quite a bit. Cuts, Rainbows, Browns and some Mountain Whitefish will entertain you, varying in size from 10- 20 inches.

Further endearing the Crystal to us this year: Mark H. from Fairfield, California joined us because he is getting ready to retire, and wants to take up fly-fishing. He caught his first fish on a dry fly, a size 14 BWO on the Crystal River.

wait for it...

This year we were so caught up in exploring new eddies on the Crystal River, that we did not have time for Avalanche Creek or the grand daddy- the Colorado River! Something for next trip!

Solitude, tranquility, golden aspens and trout on the rise, did I mention a good micro-brew?? I know where you can look for me every September.